Barclays "Double Cash Rewards" Switch

[Sarah]

There's surely something worthwhile here... too bad they make it so complicated... looks like £14/month in rewards for 2 direct debits, less £3.50/month in account fees... first year only...

Barclays Bank Account

Enjoy double cash rewards for a year – up to £384*

If you’ve got a current account with another bank, switch it to us by 29 June 2018 and you can pocket double Barclays Blue Rewards for a year1 – that’s double cash rewards and enhanced cashback from top brands.

https://www.barclays.co.uk/current-acco ... k-account/

Current account reward

Up to £7 a month

We’ll give you £3.50 for each of your first two Direct Debits every month.

Switch your everyday banking to us using the CASS by 29 June 2018, and you’ll get double cash rewards – that’s up to £14 a month in Direct Debit rewards for a whole year. T&Cs apply.

[Sarah]

£3.50/month in account fees

Correction - the account fee is £3.00/month. I opened one of these accounts a few days ago and initiated the switch; with 2 direct debits the offer is worth £132.00 in the first year (i.e. profit £11.00/month).

[planteria]

£11/m is handy Sarah. i would look at rolling that into a small investment plan, with a little pot building up foc.

[Sarah]

Well, this didn't work.

They've refunded my £3 fee for July instead of paying the £14 reward. No idea why.

This is Barclays, so I should've set my expectations really low...

[planteria]

mmm.. maybe. tbf i always found them to be great CS-wise, but they closed my accounts a few years ago and i've had nothing to do with them since: other than banking cash/cheques for a supplier that has an account with them, and retaining my Barclaycard of course .

[Sarah]

Barclays online customer service has been hopeless so far; received two response messages both of them useless copy + paste of the terms without any attention to the specific points raised or recognition that my second enquiry was a complaint. If they think customers will be satisfied waiting 24 hours only to receive text we could find on the website for ourselves in 10 seconds, they're much mistaken!

I also have a Barclays branch investigating - hopefully that'll provide a more meaningful answer. It might be as simple as rewards being paid 1 to 1.5 months in arrears, in which case the first £7 might still be credited soon; or maybe not...!

[Sarah]

It might be as simple as rewards being paid 1 to 1.5 months in arrears, in which case the first £7 might still be credited soon; or maybe not...!

Yep, this seems to be the answer. The first £7 reward has now been credited; hopefully the second (i.e. the "double" part) £7 reward will follow on 16th August.

I read on MSE that the (somewhat odd) way Barclays has structured this gives the advantage of making the rewards tax exempt, unlike the Halifax/BoS rewards (don't know about the similar Co-op scheme).

[planteria]

that's good of them, at least.

[Sarah]

The first £7 reward has now been credited; hopefully the second (i.e. the "double" part) £7 reward will follow on 16th August.

Now received the second £7 reward this month, confirming my switch "double" rewards are working!

So quite a slow setup for this offer but I can now sit back and enjoy the free cash each month...

[Sarah]

the account fee is £3.00/month

The account fee increases to £4 from 2nd August 2019.